NASCAR star Noah Gragson has opened up on the difficulties of being a Cup Series driver who isn't competing for wins every week.
The popular driver of the No. 4 car was a perennial winner in the Xfinity Series before he was brought up to the Cup by Legacy Motor Club in 2023, but hasn't visited victory lane since coming up to the premier series.
Gragson's best finish as he enters his fourth full-time season in the Cup remains the third place he secured at Talladega last year, with 2025 a particular disaster in his first year with Front Row Motorsports – finishing 34th in the drivers' standings.
The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver is now on a 27-race run without a top-10 finish in Cup racing stretching back to last year's Coca-Cola 600, and he admitted in the recently-released Full Speed: The Daytona 500 that the adjustment has been a difficult one.
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Gragson: Tomorrow's not guaranteed
At one point during the documentary, Gragson is asked: “How has your Cup career been so far?”
He replies: "Horrible."
“You’re used to winning your whole life,” he explains. "You go from being at the top, winning every weekend, to just trying to finish the race. And it really f****** sucks.”
There's another notable scene where he's standing in his trophy room, and says: “I’ll come in here and look around and think hopefully you can add to the collection. But tomorrow’s not really guaranteed.”
Still, that ongoing wait for a Cup Series victory hasn't dampened his popularity with the fans – winning the All-Star fan vote in all three of his eligible seasons so far. Now he just needs to back it up.
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